Picornavirus infection requires virus uncoating, associated with the production of 135S "A" particles and 80S empty particles from 160S mature virions, to release the RNA genome into the cell cytoplasm. Normal albumin inhibits this process. We now show that when depleted of fatty acids, albumin induces the formation of echovirus A particles.Echoviruses (EVs), members of the Enterovirus genus of the family Picornaviridae, are small positive-strand RNA viruses with icosahedral symmetry which produce a broad spectrum of diseases in humans (8). Productive cell infection requires the uncoating of the virus particle and release of the RNA genome into the cell cytoplasm. The conversion of the 160S mature virions into 135S A and 80S empty particles (reviewed in reference 14) is considered indicative of this process. Poliovirus A particle formation can be induced by soluble poliovirus receptor (6, 20), whereas soluble decay-accelerating factor, a receptor for a number of enteroviruses including EV12 (17), does not induce EV A particles (12). Moreover, conversion of poliovirus to A particles is rapid compared with the conversion of EV (12). Both uncoating and the thermal stability of virions are thought to be regulated by the presence of "pocket factors" in the hydrophobic pocket at the base of the canyon floor. Known pocket factors are fatty acid (FA) or FA based; poliovirus uses sphingosine (14), coxsackievirus B3 and EV1 both use palmitate (3, 11), and bovine enterovirus uses myristate (15). Enterovirus uncoating can be inhibited by pocket factor mimetics like WIN compounds (10,14) and by the pocket factor itself (5). The uncoating of EV, but not poliovirus, can also be blocked by normal albumin (18); since this protein contains FAs (7), we considered the possibility that FAs were responsible for this block. However, FA-depleted albumin also blocks EV infection (18). We have now investigated the block on EV infection caused by FA-depleted albumin by using wildtype (WT) EV12 and three thermolabile rhodanine-resistant EV12 mutants (1,2,8).Normal bovine serum albumin (A-7638; Sigma) and FAdepleted albumin (A-0281; Sigma) were solubilized in serumfree Dulbecco modified Eagle medium (DMEM) (final pH 7.4). EV12 and the rhodanine-resistant mutants numbered 9, 17, and 20 were incubated for 1 h at 37°C with normal or FA-depleted albumin (2%, wt/vol), or rhodanine (200 g/ml). Virus was then diluted in serum-free DMEM and adsorbed to 24-well plates of rhabdomyosarcoma (RD) cells at 95% confluency for 30 min. Cells were incubated in serum-free DMEM, and at 7 h postinfection, cells were assayed for infected cells by using an immunofocal assay (18). Preincubation of WT EV12 or mutants 17 or 20 with normal albumin and rhodanine did not affect infectivity, whereas infection by mutant 9 was enhanced by 180% (Fig. 1). In contrast, infectivity of all the viruses was reduced after preincubation with FA-depleted albumin; WT EV12 was decreased by 50%, and infectivity of the more thermolabile rhodanine mutants (8) was reduced by 70% (mutant ...